Here are 20 articles on spine surgery study findings within the last month.
1. An article recently published in Spine identified six factors impacting hospital length of stay after elective posterior lumbar fusion. Length of stay ranged from zero to 51 days and the factors impacting LOS include age and morbid obesity.
2. A new study published in The Spine Journal examines the cost savings of using intrawound vancomycin during posterior instrumented spine surgery. The study found that none of the patients who received vancomycin — at a cost of $12 per dose — returned for surgery due to surgical site infection; seven patients in the non-vancomycin group had return surgery, requiring 14 procedures.
3. The March 15 issue of Spine included an analysis of the current trends and demographics in cervical spine surgery outcomes between 2002 and 2011. A total of 307,188 cervical spine procedures were performed during that nine-year time span. Among the findings were that anterior cervical fusion and posterior cervical fusion numbers had statistically significant increases over time and there was an uptrend in patient age.
4. A new study examined the head and neck injury risk among athletes participating in extreme sports. There were 4 million injuries reported for extreme sports participants and 11.3 percent were head and neck injuries. Among those who had head and neck injuries, 83 percent were head injuries and 17 percent were neck injuries.
5. Increasing surgical duration for single-level lumbar fusion is associated with a wide array of complications, according to a study in Spine. The study found that increasing operative time was associated with stepwise increase in risk for overall complications, medical complications, surgical complications, superficial surgical site infection and postoperative transfusions.
6. Patients with known spinal injuries who were transferred from an outside hospital to a tertiary receiving institution had a high rate of repeat spine imaging, according to a study published in Spine. The overall rate of repeat computed tomography was found to be 29 percent.
7. Bone morphogenetic protein use increased significantly from 2002 to 2011, with off-label use accounting for a majority of BMP utilization, according to a new study published in Spine. Among the findings are that 76.8 percent of all posterior lumbar fusion used BMP over the nine-year period and BMP use increased from 1,116 procedures to 79,294 procedures by 2011.
8. A review published in The Spine Journal found that there is no definitive method for diagnosing pseudarthrosis after spine fusion surgery besides surgical exploration. According to the review, diagnosis of pseudarthrosis after spinal fusion remains a challenge because other diagnoses can mimic the same symptoms as pseudarthrosis and because many cases of pseudarthrosis are asymptomatic.
9. A group of Seattle spine surgeons recently compiled data on scoliosis patients managed with and without specific protocol to providing multidisciplinary care and published their results in Spine Deformity. Researchers found complication rates significantly lower in the group managed with the three-pronged approach, including lower rates of deep vein thrombosis/pulmonary embolism and lower rates of postoperative neurological complications.
10. A new study presented at the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons annual meeting showed the economic impact of patients who undergo surgery for disc herniation. Over a four-year period, researchers found surgery resulted in more than $5,000 of cost savings due to higher earnings for patients undergoing surgery.
11. A study published in Spine examined incidence of resorption after anterior lumbar interbody fusion. The research reported 40 percent incidence of early resorption and there were higher fusion rates among patients with resorption at six months.
12. A study published in the March 2014 edition of Spine examined protocol for cervical spine clearance in level 1 trauma centers. The researchers received an 87 percent response rate and found that cervical spine clearance protocols existed at 57 percent of the 191 trauma centers in the U.S.
13. An article published in Spine examines the three-year outcomes for patients who underwent microendoscopic posterior decompression for lumbar spinal stenosis. The findings included that operative time was 99.3 minutes on average and intraoperative bleeding was 15.7 mL on average.
14. A new study published in Spine examines five-year outcomes after three-column osteotomies. Among the findings were that sagittal alignment improved at all postoperative time points from the baseline but diminished from six weeks to five years and 36 percent of the patients reported major complications.
15. The Robert W. Woodruff Health Sciences Center of Emory University in Atlanta announced the results of a clinical trial that showed a single injection of stem cells into degenerative discs reduced low back pain for at least 12 months. On average, researchers found a pain reduction greater than 50 percent at 12 months.
16. An article published in the March issue of Spine examines the incidence and risk factors of adjacent segment disease requiring surgery among spinal fusion patients who underwent posterior lumbar interbody fusion and posterolateral fusion. PLIF had 2.4 times higher incidence of ASD requiring surgery than PLF.
17. In a retrospective study, surgeons examined the clinical outcome and risk of postoperative instability five years after microdecompression for degenerative lumbar spinal stenosis using the interspinous approach and published their findings in Spine. The Oswestry Disability Index improved from 58.2 percent to 21.61 percent.
18. Spine surgeon researchers recently examined the rate of revision surgery after standalone lateral lumbar interbody fusion for lumbar stenosis and published their findings in Spine. Researchers found that 10.3 percent of 117 patients required a revision surgery.
19. A recent study in the Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine identified the rate of infection following posterior lumbar spinal fusion for degenerative spine disease as well as the factors associated with an increased risk of infection after the procedure. Of the 817 patients, 37 — or 4.5 percent — developed postoperative spine infection.
20. A new research study published in Spine compares complications after lumbar spinal surgery at teaching and non-teaching hospitals. The researchers found teaching hospitals had an older patient population cohort with greater comorbidity than nonteaching hospitals, as well as higher multilevel fusion cases.
More Articles on Spine:
Anterior Spine Surgery for Disc Herniation at C7-T1: Outcomes Analysis
Orthopedic, Neurosurgeon Roles: Medical Teaching, Administrative & Research
Growing Patient Volume in 2014 & Beyond: 4 Spine Surgeon Initiatives